Council on Aging officials concerned about proposed move under Department of Health and Hospitals

Howard Rogers was working for the Bureau of Aging in the 1970s when the New Orleans agency was regulated by the state Department of Health and Human Resources. It wasn't pretty, said Rogers, now the executive director of the renamed New Orleans Council on Aging.

Times-Picayune archiveGov. Bobby Jindal

"It really didn't function well because of the bureaucracy," he said Monday.

That's why Rogers and his Council on Aging counterparts in some other parishes are alarmed that Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to move their operations from under the oversight of the governor's office to the state agency now known as the Department of Health and Hospitals. Rogers and Al Robichaux, director of the Jefferson Council on Aging, said they will fight that move as vigorously as they can.

"We were under DHH many years ago, and I was told by my predecessor to never allow that to happen again," Robichaux said. "There was all kinds of red tape."

Rogers and Robichaux said they aren't the only Council on Aging chiefs who are worried.

Kathy Kliebert, Louisiana's deputy secretary of health and hospitals, said she understands the anxiety.

"I think they are fearful ... based on history of the '70s," she said. "I don't know what happened in the '70s, but I feel like they are adamant that things will be like they were before."

Kliebert said, however, that it's not fair to compare the Health and Hospitals Department today with the Department of Health and Human Resources of the 1970s. Elderly services wasn't a focus then, she said, but that's the plan if aging services for the state are now switched to her department.

"It's really comparing apples and oranges," she said. "It's an old setup that is not really the setup we have today."

The proposed shift surfaced last week in Jindal's budget recommendation to the Legislture for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Kliebert said Rogers, Robichaux and other council chiefs probably feel blindsided.

"It's really unfortunate we weren't able to discuss this ahead of time," she said. "I think people think it's a done deal because they see it in (the proposed budget). I think people feel because it is in a document it will happen without input, and I totally understand that. We want input. We want numerous discussions with local councils."

To that end, a summit meeting for all parish aging councils will be held Thursday afternoon in Baton Rouge, she said.

Jindal Press Secretary Frank Collins said in a statement issued Monday evening that the governor's proposal "will improve services for those who are currently served by the Office of Elderly Affairs. This plan will reduce duplicative services, create a better avenue for the delivery of elderly services, allow DHH to better leverage funding, and improve protections for the elderly. Through this initiative, DHH is continuing to work with stakeholders to enhance services and protect funding streams for the elderly."

Rogers said he and others are concerned because of their opinion of the track record of the state Office of Aging and Adult Services, managed by the Health and Hospitals Department, and created in 2006, which has a five-year waiting list for services.

"They have a budget which is three times as high as the governor's Office of Elderly Affairs and three times as many employees, and they can't take care of a 5,000-person waiting list in seven years. How are they going to handle 64 parish councils serving 700,000 individuals?"

Kliebert said that description isn't accurate. There have been waiting lists for some services, but many services are provided fairly quickly with no waiting lists, she said. To be fair, many local council on aging offices have had waiting lists of their own.

"Right now, about 18 percent of the state's population is over 60. By 2030, it will be nearly 25 percent. We have a critical responsibility to make sure we build an infrastructure of support for this population that is sustainable, coordinated and comprehensive moving forward," Kliebert said.

"This proposal is about building a partnership, so, together we can be stronger and can better meet ALL of the needs of this growing population.

"We understand fully that this is a change from what people are used to, but it's one that is absolutely essential to sustaining and strengthening services for our senior population. This dialogue we are engaging in now with so many people across the state dedicated to serving this population is a great step to building the partnerships necessary to make all of our programs stronger."